Hometeam: Quaboag's second-half surge not enough

Tuesday

Mar 11, 2014 at 6:00 AMMar 12, 2014 at 1:12 AM

By Carl Setterlund CORRESPONDENT

WORCESTER — After a three-year hiatus, traditional small school power Quaboag Regional broke through for yet another district title last Saturday at UMass, the girls' 15th title in school history. But the Cougars' memorable run came to an end Tuesday night in a Division 4 state semifinal against Central Mass. champ Millis High at Clark University's Kneller Athletic Center.

The Western Mass. titlists were held to single digits and trailed by 23 points at halftime, a hole the Cougars couldn't dig themselves out of in a 50-32 loss to the Mohawks.

Quaboag (20-4) outscored Millis (15-10) in the third quarter, 12-11, and fourth quarter, 12-8, after mustering just eight points over the first 16 minutes.

"The message (at halftime) was, 'We have a choice — quit or fight,'?" second-year Quaboag coach Cliff Lanier said. "I was glad we fought. The kids came out and played really hard in the second half.

"We started asserting ourselves because (Millis) asserts themselves. If you don't assert right back at them, they're going to roll over you, which they did in that first half."

Freshman 6-footer Lexi Paquette led Quaboag with 11 points, nine in the second half. Junior Brittany Herring, the Cougars' other 6-footer, followed with nine points, including six in the third quarter as they attempted to rally back.

"We tried to clog up the paint," Millis coach Dave Fallon said. "We limited the point guard (Jess Korzec) in terms of we tried not to give her a lot of openings. Then I thought we tried our best we could to front the post. We gave a lot of weak-side help and just (tried to) clog it up. Just force jump shots, that was our goal."

Millis moves on to face Eastern Mass. champion New Mission in the Division 4 girls' state final at 5:45 p.m. Friday at Holy Cross' Hart Center.

Quaboag was held silent for the first six minutes before freshman Kayla Klein broke the ice, getting to the rim from the left side to cut it to 6-2 with 2:02 left in the first quarter.

The Mohawks expanded to a 9-2 lead after one period, and then added six more points in the opening 1:10 of the second quarter, four coming from Camden Morrison (15 points).

Klein added another lefty layup, and Korzec pulled up from 15 feet on the next trip down to cut it to 15-6 with 5:35 left in the half.

That was the last time Quaboag had the game within single digits, though, as Millis went on a 16-0 run before Paquette scored with 5 seconds left in the first half to make it 31-8 at intermission.

"In the first half, we weren't asserting ourselves inside as much as I wanted us to," Lanier said. "We were settling for getting caught below the block."

Morrison, a senior captain, had 10 points in the second quarter, while sophomore Katy Golden scored 13 of her game-high 16 points before the break.

The Cougars looked re-energized coming out of halftime as Herring finally put them into double digits, 31-10, just over 30 seconds into the third quarter.

"If we get it to Brittany on the inside, she's tough to stop," Lanier said.

Millis responded by jumping to its biggest lead, 38-10, off an Amy Assad 15-footer less than three minutes into the second half.

Paquette got Quaboag going again with the first two Cougar baskets in an 8-2 run. Korzec and Herring scored as well to pull them back to 40-18.

"I thought they had a little more energy than us," Fallon said of Quaboag's performance out of halftime. "They pushed us around a little bit, but I thought we battled right back."

Millis held a 42-20 lead going into the fourth quarter.

Paquette and Herring combined for the first five points of the fourth quarter, while Korzec had a big block as the Cougars cut it back to 42-25.

Korzec picked the Millis point guard's pocket and took it all the way for a layup with 1:25 left to cap a memorable four-year varsity career for the 1,000-point scorer.

"That was just nice," Lanier said. "She won't see it that way because Jess is a competitor and there's only one thing she cares about — winning."

Contact Carl Setterlund at sports@telegram.com.Follow him on Twitter @TGSports.